Cannon Fodder

New York by Night

Episode 3: The Mysterious Doctor Grout

26

JUL/13

Saya Cutscene:

Saya is in darkness, then sees her mother before her. Her mother says, “Saya, you must go see you father. You must talk to him, especially after what you did to me…” As she speaks, her flesh begins to rot and Saya wakes up screaming, digging herself out of where she slept in a graveyard.

Later that night, at one of the local arcades, Saya spots a ganger type come from behind a woman, snatch her purse, and run. Unable to resist a good chase, she pursues him. She overcomes him in a matter of seconds and throws him into a nearby alley. After delivering a punch that renders him unsconscious, she goes to pick up the purse. Before she can pick it up she hears someone clapping and turns to see an Asian man watching her. He says he’s impressed and introduces himself as James Bryant, a bail bondsman. Says if she’s looking for work she should give him a call. Saya agrees to take one of his cards and to think about it.

Drake:

He is on the streets, running, and feels blood dripping from him. After a moment he realizes he is sweating blood. Something is chasing him. When it catches up to him, it reaches out to swipe at him with a hand with three claws. As it goes to strike him, he wakes up.

Joseph:

Joseph is sitting with a puppet. It’s very realistic, fleshy, and looks like his brother. The puppet is pleading with him, “You need to check yourself into an asylum so you can get the help that you need…” When Joseph blows him off he insists, “Joseph, you need to go to an asylum where you can get help.” As he pleads with him, he tilts his head back and blood spews out. Joseph awakes.

Aaron:

He is standing near a dark pit and feels himself drawn to it. As he nears it he realizes it looks like tar. As he approaches a mouth appears in the murk, with fangs, and says, “Join me…” Just as he’s about to wake up, he sees the friend he killed after his Embrace and he is saying, “Dude, it’s not me… it’s not me…” A tentacle comes up from the darkness and pulls him into the pit. Aaron wakes up haunted.

Drake:

Over the past couple weeks he has been working with Decker, the seddite, and Drake has put together enough for a small apartment. Decker is looking for a go-between to the Camarilla. Drake has been in touch with a few people, anarchs, etc setting something up at the airport.

~~~~*

Tonight… We all got messages from our sponsors saying we need to go to the Elysium as we should have a vested interest in what’s being discussed. We get there not long after, Drake and Joseph driving, Aaron along with Joseph. Saya seemed to make her own way. None of us see Allister or Taylor. Other vampires are just hanging out, being weird mostly. Saya goes on, ignoring most of them. Joseph meets a fellow Malkavian and has a good time talking with him. Aaron spends time passing out cards for a tattoo parlor he started moonlighting at. He tells a few people he can do tattoos that stick.

Drake looks for his mentor, the kid, who waves him over. He reminds him that he may want to go inside the court to hear what’s being disucssed, but first he introduces him to several suit types he is with: the black guy that had a flame thrower, a balding Chinese guy with a comb over, a Korean guy that looks a bit younger. One of them tells Drake to be careful with those Seddites. As Saya goes by, Drake heads in along with her.

Joseph and his Malkavian friend come in embarrassingly late… Joseph talking about putting his hand inside a puppet. Boss Callahan is in the court going on about how Staten Island is his territory, and how the Prince inserted new vampires into it without so much as consulting him. The Prince stops him occasionally, asking if he is still part of the Camarilla, etc., and we also see a group of asshole Ventrue vampires talking down to Callahan. They are headed up by Lord Carter who sits in the midst of them with a cane, exuding a sense of authority. Meanwhile, the Prince steps in to calm him down, pays Callahan a few empty compliments to save his dignity from the Ventrue and Callahan seems to settle down.

Afterward, the Prince waves Aaron over and says, “You know I’m going to owe someone for this later but, anyway, you see that guy? (I think he was pointing at Callahan). He says there’s a problem in that you guys have a Malkavian in your group. The Malkavians came in late to the party here, and while most clans have a primogen to keep them in line, like Callahan for the Brujah… the Malkavian primogen, Dr. Allister Grout, has been missing for about four weeks.”

He goes on to say he’s concerned, especially as Callahan had been complaining about the Sabbat in New Jersey. He’d like us to look into it, gives us Grout’s address, says it’s a mansion. He also says that if Aaron can run a few errands for the Prince on the side, he’ll be sure to help him out a bit financially as he settles in.

At the same time, Joseph is approached by Harley, but this time she is wearing a cat woman suit. She waves her tail at the Prince a moment before telling Joseph that their primogen has disappeared and the Prince is offering to make her the primogen. Before he can really respond, she puts her claws to Joseph’s face and says if he knows what’s good for him he’ll find Grout. When she notices the Prince leaving, she takes off after him, purring and trying to get close to him.

Also about the same time, Robert tells Saya that the primogen for the Malkavians is missing. He seems to think it would look good for her to check into it, but he warns her that the guy was crazy, doing all kinds of experiments and that the places is probably going to be a deathtrap.

Saya goes to see if Drake wants to go, and as she does, Joseph and Aaron come to join in. It seems like everyone is going to head over, but Joseph runs off to find Harley again to ask her a question. Not wanting to wait around, Drake, Saya and Aaron take the LTD and head toward the mansion. After finding his way into a hallway lined with comic book art and intruding on a couple of intimate encounters in an attempt to find Harley, Joseph is eventually chased off by one of the Prince’s deputies (Fabio one). He takes the Scooby mobile and heads toward the mansion, somehow beating the rest to it.

The mansion is enormous. It faces Manhattan on Crown Point. It is surrounded by an iron gate and fence and we find the gate to teh fence unlocked. As we approach, a voice is heard saying, “Staaaaay awaaaay…” (in a ghostly fashion). While deciding the best way to approach, Joseph and Aaron decide to go through the mail. Saya decides to take a look around for an alternate entrance and Drake goes along with her. As they’re walking Saya hears a noise and turns around to see Drake gone. He’d hit a trap and found himself dropping down through some sort of tunnel. He is able to slow his descent enough to land more or less on his feet in front of two men in gimp suits.

When Saya goes to look for him, she also triggers the trap and falls, but she can’t slow her fall and ends up tumbling past Drake and right into the two men.

Combat Summary: Two rounds. Drake clenches one of the men while Saya mauls the other with her claws and takes some damage in return. Drake ends up biting the grappled man who flails and in his effort to escape cuts his own throat. Meanwhile Saya finishes off the other one easily. She feeds on one of them to heal her wounds.

Meanwhile… Joseph and Aaron go inside the mansion and come across two girls in straight jackets and crazy makeup on their faces, and a crazy man in another gimp suit. Combat ensues.

Combat summary:
One girl attacks both Aaron and Joseph. As they approach, Joseph yells at the crazy man and says, “Have you tasted the rainbow? I’ve tasted the rainbow… do you want to taste the rainbow with me??” The man becomes enthralled and does not attack. Meanwhile the girl attacking Joseph manages to wound him grievously with a knife. When she comes at him again Joseph goes down, and is forced to use blood to try and keep himself out of torpor. After about 4 more rounds, Aaron manages to kill both of the crazy girls and Joseph regains consciousness. He encourages the crazy man to come closer and feeds off him while making out with him, and then sends him to wait in the Scooby van.

Saya and Drake:

After combat ended, they open the door to the tunnel and it opens into a small hallway. The floor is checkered, black and white, and there are doors to the left, right, and straight ahead. After smelling formaldehyde but not knowing where it came from, they both decide to try the door on the left first and are confronted by two ghoulish looking dogs. They are each attacked by one and manage to kill them without taking any additional damage.

Aaron and Joseph:

They decide to go up a spiral staircase and it opens up into a large living area with a long table, like a dining table. On the far side of the room is another girl in a straight jacket, cutting at herself. At the table is another gimp suit man eating the intestines of another deceased patient. He looks up at them, but seems pretty content with his meal. Off to the side is another large staircase with a door. Joseph and Aaron decide to attack the humans.

Joseph enthralls the man with another inquiry about “tasting the rainbow,” but he generally still seems unimpressed. Joseph asks him where the Doctor is, to which the man replies, “Who are you?” Regardless of his answer, he asks again, “Who are you?” Aaron easily kills the girl while Joseph continues attempting to interrogate the man. He finally intimidates him into asking him to show him where the Doctor is. The man simply points upward.

Saya and Drake:

They discover a laboratory across the hall with all sorts of equipment and a “patient” who was killed, looks all kinds of torn up. The center door opens up into room with Tesla or Vandergraff type generators, 5 pylons of which are active, 1 of which is not. Drake throws a dog at one of the switches in the corner and it gets fried by the electricity. After not coming up with a better plan, they go back to check out the lab. After some extended searching, they manage to find a secret room with a stash of weapons and explosives. They also find a fang on a string, which seems special. Drake grabs it. (NOTE: Called the Terufange, +2 difficulty to frenzy to wearer.)

They use a couple satchels to stash the 4 sticks of C-4 as well as the shotgun shells and detonators. They also each grab a shotgun. Saya uses her science skills to figure out how to use the C-4 and Drake throws a quarter stick into the center pylon in the room with the generators. An earth shattering explosion rocks the foundation of the mansion. Even as Joseph and Aaron are climbing the stairs in the mansion they are thrown into the air as the lights go out. Somehow escaping unscathed, Saya and Drake find they are able to get around the remaining pylons, that do start to come back on, providing minimal lighting to the mansion.

Aaron and Joseph:

As Aaron and Joseph climb the stairs, they come into a room with no less than six girls and gimps. As difficult as they had been before to kill, Joseph tells Aaron to run and plug his ears. He then uses the voice of madness to inflict the six with frenzy. Five attack one another, and one gimp goes to come after Joseph who flees back toward Aaron for help.

Joseph and Aaron scrap with the gimp and in a few rounds, kill it without taking any damage. Then another one comes down the stairs, which Aaron quickly puts down. The remaining people in the room at the top of the stairs had presumably killed one another.

Saya and Drake:
They make it through the pylon room and they enter a long corridor. It’s long, narrow, and lined on each side with about ten cell doors, some of which are open, some of which aren’t. The end of the corridor goes around a bend and the exit cannot be seen clearly.